NEW YORK (AP) — A laid-off women's accessories designer shot a former coworker to death in front of the Empire State Building, causing a chaotic showdown with police Friday in front of one of the world's best-known landmarks. Police killed the suspect and at least nine others were wounded, some possibly by police gunfire, city officials said.

Some of the wounded were grazed by bullets and others hit directly, but all were expected to survive, officials said.

The gunshots rang out on the Fifth Avenue side of the building at around 9 a.m., a time of day when the sidewalks around the building are packed with pedestrians and merchants were opening their shops.

"People were yelling 'Get down! Get down!", said Marc Engel, an accountant who was on a bus in the area when he heard the shots. "It took about 15 seconds, a lot of 'pop, pop, pop, pop, one shot after the other."

Afterward, he saw the sidewalks littered with the wounded, including one person "dripping enough blood to leave a stream."

After the shootout, crowds of tourists and people on their way to work gathered along 34th Street, which was shut down by police. Police helicopters buzzed overhead and swarms of officers were gathered around the crime scene.

Jeffrey Johnson, 58, who was laid off about a year ago at Hazan Imports, fired three times at the company's 41-year-old office manager, shooting the man in the head, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. The two had traded accusations of harassment when Johnson worked there, he said.

Johnson walked away, and a construction worker who saw the shooting followed Johnson and alerted two police officers, a detail regularly assigned to patrol the 1,454-foot skyscraper since the 9/11 terror attacks, officials said.

Surveillance video footage shows Johnson reaching into a bag, pulling out a .45-caliber pistol and pointing it at officers, Kelly said. The officers drew their weapons and started firing, killing Johnson, Kelly said.

Kelly initially said that Johnson fired on officers, but police said later they were trying to determine whether Johnson actually fired shots.

Erica Solar doesn't know who shot her in the back of the knee while she walked to get coffee on her way to work, said her brother, Louis Lleras.

"She just heard shots and she fell to the ground a couple of steps forward and noticed that she was shot," Lleras said.

The two officers fired a total of 14 rounds, he said. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said some of the nine wounded may have been shot by police in the mayhem. Johnson's semi-automatic weapon was equipped to fire at least eight rounds; at least one round was left in the clip, police said.

Johnson worked at the company near the building for about six years and was laid off because of downsizing, Kelly said.

"We were just working here and we just heard bang, bang, bang!" said Mohammed Bachchu, 22, of Queens, a worker at a nearby souvenir shop. He said he rushed from the building and saw seven people lying on the ground, covered in blood.

Queens resident Rebecca Fox, 27, said she saw people running down the street and initially thought it was a celebrity sighting, but then saw a woman shot in the foot and a man dead on the ground.

"I was scared and shocked and literally shaking," she said. She said police seemed to appear in seconds. "It was like CSI, but it was real."

Hassam Cissa, 22, of the Bronx, said he saw two bodies on the ground and police applying a white cloth to a man's stomach wound.

Gunshots so close to one of the city's leading tourist attractions immediately prompted fears of terrorism, but federal officials said that wasn't the case, and a guard at skyscraper said it didn't involve the parts of the building where tourists gather to visit the skyscraper.

The gunfire came less than two weeks after a knife-wielding man was shot dead by police near Times Square, another tourist-saturated part of the city. Authorities say police shot 51-year-old Darrius Kennedy after he lunged at officers with a kitchen knife Aug. 12. Kennedy was smoking marijuana in Times Square on a Saturday afternoon when officers first approached, police said. It was the beginning of an encounter that would stretch for seven crowded blocks.

In 1997, a gunman opened fire on the 86th floor observation deck of the Empire State Building, killing one tourist and wounding six others before fatally shooting himself.

Metal detectors and bag searchers have been standard at the 102-story skyscraper since the 1997 shooting.

Millions of tourists visiting New York ascend its heights to gape over the city from its observation deck, made famous in films such as "Sleepless in Seattle." It was 1933's "King Kong" that showed a giant ape clutching Fay Wray and fending off airplanes atop the tower.

Contributing to this report were Alex Katz, Samantha Gross and Julie Walker.

HOUSTON (AP) — A shooting on a Texas community college campus wounded at least two people Tuesday and sent students fleeing for safety as officials placed the campus on lockdown, officials said.

Authorities had at least one person in custody, according to a law enforcement official in Washington who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the ongoing case. The official said local authorities also thought there could be a second shooter.

He said multiple injuries had been reported.

Aerial footage from local television stations showed police cars and ambulances parked on the Lone Star College System campus about 20 miles north of downtown Houston. Emergency personnel could be seen tending to people on stretchers, while others ran from a building led by officers.

The Harris County Sheriff's Office had no immediate details, but college spokesman Jed Young confirmed the campus was put on lockdown following reports of a shooter. The college issued an alert on its website telling students and faculty to take immediate shelter or avoid the campus.

Melinda Muse, spokeswoman for the Harris County Health System, said two people were taken to Harris Health Ben Taub Hospital Emergency Center following the shooting.

Cody Harris, 20, he said he was in a classroom with about six or seven other students waiting for a psychology class to start when he heard eight shots. He and other students looked at each other, said "I guess we should get out of here," and fled.

"I was just worried about getting out," Harris said. "I called my grandmother and asked her to pick me up."

The Lone Star College System has an enrollment of 90,000 students and six college campuses, according to its website.

Along with the college, four nearby schools in the Aldine Independent School District went into lockdown, a district spokesman said.

Lone Star student Daniel Flores, 19, said he was in a tutoring lab on the second floor doing homework when he heard what he heard six to seven shots.

"I didn't think they were shots," he said. "It sounded like someone was kicking a door."

About 60 people were in the lab, and they began running out of the room once they realized the sound was gunfire, he said. They fled to a nearby student services center, where authorities kept them there for about 30 minutes before letting them go.

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Associated Press writer Eileen Sullivan contributed to this report from Washington.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A law enforcement official says Texas authorities have at least one person in custody in connection to the Lone Star College campus shooting in Houston, and local authorities think there could potentially be a second shooter.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss an ongoing case. The official says multiple injuries have been reported.

The Houston-area community college is on lockdown amid reports of a shooter on campus. Lone Star College System issued an alert on its website telling students and faculty to take immediate shelter or avoid the campus.

HOUSTON (AP) — Charges aren't expected to be filed against a 25-year-old man who was involved in an argument that escalated into gunfire at a Houston-area community college, officials said Wednesday.

The two men who were arguing and a bystander were shot in the Tuesday incident outside the library at the North Harris campus of Lone Star College.

Authorities early Wednesday charged 22-year-old Carlton Berry with two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Court records did not list an attorney for Berry.

Harris County Sheriff's Office spokesman Thomas Gilliland said the 25-year-old, identified in court records as Jody Neal, did not have a weapon. Berry was the only person who shot a weapon during the incident, Gilliland said.

Gilliland said authorities are trying to figure out if the argument between Berry and Neal was an "ongoing altercation or if it stemmed from that day" and whether the two were students at the community college.

The sheriff's office was expected to discuss its ongoing investigation at a news conference later Wednesday.

Court records have identified the bystander who was shot as 69-year-old maintenance worker Bobby Cliburn. A woman who suffered a medical problem during the incident was hospitalized, along with the three injured men. Updates on their conditions were not immediately available.

Berry has a court hearing scheduled for Thursday but it might be delayed because of his medical condition, officials said. He is being treated at a medical wing for county inmates at LBJ General Hospital. He faces a total bond of $60,000.

The volley of gunshots around noon Tuesday at Lone Star College, located in north Houston, prompted a lockdown then evacuation of the campus. Students were allowed to return to campus and retrieve their vehicles later Tuesday. Classes at the campus resumed on Wednesday.

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HOUSTON (AP) — Houston police say an infant has died after being shot while in a car with her mother and some of the woman's friends.

Police on Monday did not immediately release the name of the victim or further details on whether anyone has been arrested. Investigators are trying to determine a motive for the gunfire.

The shooting happened early Sunday in a Houston neighborhood as two men on foot opened fire on a car.

Sgt. Peg Jewell says an SUV then drove by and the occupants fired more bullets into the car. The wounded baby was transported to a Houston hospital, where she died. Nobody else was hurt.

HOUSTON (AP) — Houston police say a dispute over one dancer bumping another led to gunfire that left three men dead and three women wounded.

Police on Tuesday appealed to the public to provide information in the search for the gunman.

Police say the incident began early Sunday inside Club ICU then moved to the parking lot where a fight broke out.

Police spokesman John Cannon says the initial dispute was over one woman bumping the other while both were on the dance floor.

Police identified the three men who died as 38-year-old Gilbert Kibble, 22-year-old Curtis Stewart and 26-year-old Felipe Castillo. Names of the three women who were wounded haven't been released.

Cannon says police are trying to determine whether the two women who originally argued were among the three injured females.

HOUSTON (AP) — Prosecutors on Monday dropped charges against a 22-year-old man who authorities initially believed was involved in a shooting that wounded him and two others at a Houston-area community college.

Carlton Berry was arrested soon after the Jan. 22 shootings at Lone Star College and charged with two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. But authorities later accused another man, Trey Foster, 22, of being the shooter.

Foster has been charged with two counts of aggravated assault and faces a charge of resisting arrest in an earlier case. He was arrested Friday in the Dallas suburb of Plano.

Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia defended his agency's initial arrest of Berry, saying two of the victims initially indicated that Barry was the shooter. He also said Berry at first refused to talk to investigators, and it was only after he was charged that he pointed authorities to Foster.

"I support my investigators. I continue to support them," Garcia said. "I remain proud of their thoroughness and their relentless pursuit of the truth. They did what they were supposed to do."

Investigators say the shooting happened after 25-year-old Jody Neal bumped into Foster while Foster was walking with Berry. Foster and Neal argued but went their separate ways.

But when the two ran into each other 30 minutes later, they argued again and Foster fired at Neal, wounding him in the abdomen and leg. Berry also was shot and wounded, and a maintenance worker for the college, Bobby Cliburn, 55, was hit in the leg.

Authorities say at least 10 shots were fired, causing panic and a leading to a campus lockdown.

Berry's attorney, Robert A. Jones, said his client never should have been charged or jailed because the evidence showed he was a victim. Berry was shot in the left hip, which Jones said was an indication that Berry might have been facing away or running away from the shooter.

"He said that continually, whenever (authorities) talked to him, that he didn't do anything. But that wasn't enough. Then they started their investigation based upon his statement and they realized he didn't do anything," Jones said.

Prosecutor Alison Baimbridge said authorities dropped the charges in the interest of justice. She said that as with any investigation, the more witness interviews and evidence collecting that are done, authorities are "better able to determine who was where, what actually occurred."

Charges were formally dropped during a court hearing Monday, and Berry was later released from jail.

Foster made his initial court appearance Monday. He is being held on bonds totaling $100,000, and if he posts them, a judge ordered him subject to GPS monitoring and a curfew.

Quanell X, a community activist and a spokesman for Foster's family, said Foster told him Berry had nothing to do with the shooting. Berry and Foster apparently knew each other from school.

"It was inappropriate and wrong for Trey to have a pistol on campus," he said.

Quanell X said Foster legally bought the .40-caliber handgun authorities say was used in the shooting at a sporting goods store in Houston. Foster took a class for a concealed handgun license but had not completed the process to get a license, he said.

Garcia said investigators confirmed Foster bought the gun at the store, but noted there are questions about whether he should have been allowed to do so because of his criminal history.

Jess Myers, a spokesman for the sporting goods store, St. Paul, Minn.-based Gander Mountain, said the company couldn't provide firearms purchase records or comment on an ongoing investigation.

"Gander Mountain operates in strict compliance with all local, state and federal laws regarding firearms ownership and fully cooperates with law enforcement," Myers said in an email.

Quanell X said Foster bought the gun to defend himself after he was shot in the face a couple of years ago and had recently been receiving threats. He said Foster panicked during the shooting.

"He was very remorseful and sorry that innocent people got shot," he said.

Internal affairs officers are reviewing Tuesday afternoon's shooting. Police say the officer who fatally shot the suspect has been with the force since 1984.

Police say a 911 call from the woman, who had a restraining order against her husband, summoned officers.

Investigators say the suspect, who briefly ducked into a waiting taxi he apparently took to the building, refused to put down a pistol and threatened to harm his spouse. An officer shot the husband before the suspect could enter the woman's building.

Houston police believe the gunman, whose name was not immediately released, was also responsible for a shot fired into the building early Tuesday.